key: cord-0887492-fa7fa10r
authors: Wu, Yeshun; Xu, Xiaolin; Yang, Ling; Liu, Cunming; Yang, Chun
title: Nervous system damage after COVID-19 infection: presence or absence?
date: 2020-04-18
journal: Brain Behav Immun
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2020.04.043
sha: 85934cfecfeeb6d1c42760a2b0bdc0d28e0e6a1f
doc_id: 887492
cord_uid: fa7fa10r

nan

Many thanks for the comments and suggestions on our recently published review (Wu et al., 2020) . has been widely spread around the world, and more than two million infected patients have been confirmed until April 16, 2020. It is well recognized that the deleterious impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on the central nervous system cannot be ignored. In addition to the first case of the brain damage caused by SARS-CoV-2 in Beijing Ditan Hospital (Xiang et al., 2020) , a recent article also reported a case of SARS-CoV-2 infection-related encephalitis (Ye et al., 2020) . These findings are sufficient to support the deleterious effects of SARS-CoV-2 on brain function, but the exact mechanism remains to be determined. Vavougios et al. (2020) proposed that the furin-like cleavage site of coronavirus is an important determinant for its neurotropism. We found that the S-protein cleavage by furin or furin-like proteases plays a key role in the invasion and virulence of SARS-CoV and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) (Millet and Whittaker, 2015) . In addition, furin-like proteases also determine the host specificity 3 and tissue tropism of these coronaviruses (Millet and Whittaker, 2015) , which probably allow coronaviruses to infect nervous system through membrane fusion. However, it has not been determined whether the furin-like cleavage site on the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 has a specific role in its invasion of nervous system. Further studies are therefore strongly required.

Given the particularity of brain tissues, there is currently no pathological evidence to support viral infection in nerve tissue, so these sporadic cases remind clinicians to pay more attentions to the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on brain functions. Furthermore, the current reports are all about the short-term effect of SARS-CoV-2 on nervous system, while the long-term effect may appear in the subsequent investigations.

Host cell proteases: Critical determinants of coronavirus tropism and pathogenesis

Letter to the Editor: Host proteases as determinants of Coronaviral neurotropism and virulence

Nervous system involvement after infection with COVID-19 and other coronaviruses

First Case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease with Encephalitis

Encephalitis as a clinical manifestation of COVID-19

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.